Click on the play button to listen to report.

**After a 6-hour government shutdown, the House of Representatives voted early Friday morning to support a two-year budget deal that includes an extension to keep the government open until March 23rd.

Agweb.com reports the budget includes provisions to lift an underwriting limit on revenue insurance products for livestock, make cotton eligible for the Price Loss Coverage program, and reduce the cost of the Margin Protection

Program for dairy producers.

Also included are $2.4 billion in aid to farmers affected by last year’s hurricanes, and improvements to several USDA disaster programs.

**Continued Republican control of the Senate after this fall's elections is virtually assured by an abundance of races in Republican-leaning rural states.

As Agri-Pulse reports, that’s a slice of 2018 election projections from David Wasserman, house editor for the Cook Political Report.

Wasserman says 26 Democratic-held seats are up for re-election and just eight Republican seats. He says they only need to pick up two seats to gain a 51-seat majority, but Democrats are playing too much defense.